


A Chance to Start Over

by InsomniacFlaaffy



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Accurate Sign Language, Divorce, F/M, Fluff in the Waste, Friends to Lovers, Selectively Mute Sole Survivor, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2018-11-15 08:25:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11227116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsomniacFlaaffy/pseuds/InsomniacFlaaffy
Summary: Sometimes you need something as big as the apocalypse, being put on ice, and waking up 210 years later to fix up your life.





	1. Blamco Mac & Cheese

Life was supposed to be the great American dream that had been advertised on the television, magazines, and on the radio. It was supposed to be an easy and quiet life that everyone and their dog wanted. Backyard barbeques, parties, baseball games, apple pies; the whole shebang. Dee-Dee’s life was far from the American dream. If the American dream was Las Vegas, Dee-Dee’s life was Topeka, Kansas or Hell, Michigan.

It started with Dee-Dee’s childhood. Her family was lower class than the other children’s families in her neighborhood. Her parents tried their hardest to make ends meet. Dee-Dee found herself going to bed at night without dinner many times. There was never a lot of food in their pantry of cabinets. Just enough for a family of three to survive off of. 

Dee-Dee’s school life was a lackluster one compared to others. She got average grades, didn’t have any friends, and rarely talked. In high school, she was voted ‘ _Most Likely to Work at a Slocum Joe’s_ ’ and ‘ _Most Likely to Lose a Fight with a Communist_ ’. Her peers had a good laugh at that award for the longest time. Colleges didn’t give scholarships to average students so Dee-Dee was a sitting duck when school came to an end. Until she was approached by an United States recruiter one day. They promised her she would be set for college and life if she signed up for the army. The honey coated stories of gaining respect, earning praise, and the thought of not being a burden to her parents were what really drew her in. Before she knew it, the pen was in her hand and she was signing the papers. Dee-Dee signed her life away to the United States government, hoping for a better future. How completely wrong she was. 

The army was tougher place than Dee-Dee was told or expected it to be. Torturous training in the heat, drill sergeants screaming in her ears, awful living conditions and food; Dee-Dee would have some colorful words about the whole thing if she opened her mouth to speak. They didn’t hesitate to throw the poor girl into the jaws of war after she finished her training. Her unit was immediately sent up north to Canada, armed to the teeth with armor and weapons. The mission was unclear until she arrived to her destination: to annex the entire country by means of force. Of course Dee-Dee did what she was ordered to do but it didn’t feel right doing it. The thought of absorbing a whole country for resources seemed like overkill to her. But what did Dee-Dee know about politics?

When Dee-Dee returned home, there was no praise or respect she was promised. Just more obligations she had to commit herself to as a soldier of the army. She couldn’t help but to feel like she got the short end of the stick in the deal. She was stuck being a soldier. Though, it’s not like she had any other options lined up for her. At least it beat working at a Slocum Joe’s. And the army taught her how to fight and gave her some kind of benefits so she couldn’t complain too much. 

Even finding love was lackluster for Dee-Dee. One day, an old school peer sought her out while she was out in downtown Boston. Nate was his name and he was a lawyer. He had a way with words unlike Dee-Dee herself. She was soon trapped in his net of sweet words and charming looks. Then, she had a gold ring on her finger and moved out to a quiet suburb to the northwest of Boston. Months later, she was pregnant and Nate began to grow more distant from her.

When Shaun was born, he barely touched her anymore. Though he loved his new son to bits, Nate treated Dee-Dee like she was a second class citizen. He would go quiet immediately when she entered the room, glaring at her from the corner of his eye. He moved himself into the guest room and stayed out long into the late hours of the night. Every time he returned, he smelt of woman’s perfume and he clothes were always disheveled. Dee-Dee knew he was having an affair but when she confronted him, the words would never come out. She always had problems speaking and it was causing her marriage to fail. She knew it. It was only a matter of time before everything exploded in her face.

_______________

 

Today was October the 23rd and autumn fever was in full swing in the small cul-de-sac community of Sanctuary Hills. The trees were turning to a lovely assortment of oranges, yellows, and reds. The air grew chilly with each passing day. Paper black cats, plastic pumpkins, and fake skulls decorated every house in the neighborhood since Halloween drew nearer. Except for on single home. And that home was Dee-Dee’s house. She planned on getting festive and put up some decorations but she kept getting sidetracked. And Nate would never do it if she made gestures from assistance. He never listened to her. She did almost everything on her own; even cleaned the bathroom she stood in.

Dee-Dee looked at herself in the small bathroom mirror as she leaned her weight on the sink. Her dark brown skin absorbed the bright fluorescent lighting above her. Tired eyes, as dark as her skin, looked back at her. The splotchy pink area beneath her left eye from a hot oil accident during her childhood stood out on her face like a sore thumb. She never covered it up with makeup though. Could if she wanted to but never did. It made her appear to be rugged and tough so she left it the way it was. Nate hated the ugly mark but he didn’t say it aloud. He hid many things from her. 

She pulled the elastic band from out her hair, causing black strands, straight and thick, to fall on her shoulders. Her fingers ran through her hair from the scalp to its ends. There wasn’t any work to be done around the house today so she need to have her hair tied up in a ponytail. The only thing Dee-Dee had to do was attend a speech at the Veteran Hall in Concord. It was mandatory, she had to go. She wasn’t even going to ask Nate to join her. He would just reject like always. Might as well save the time and energy. Taking a deep breath, Dee-Dee flicked the light switch to the off position and exited the bathroom. She couldn’t hide in there forever. She had to be in the same room with her legally bound husband eventually. 

“Ah, good morning, mum!” A robotic, British accented male voice greeted Dee-Dee as she entered the living room. It belonged to a shiny, new Mister Handy robot until floating prone in the kitchen. His three round sensors protruding from his spherical body focused on her and he held a coffee pot in his clawed appendage. “Your coffee. A hundred seventy-three point five degrees Fahrenheit. Brewed to perfection!” His name was Codsworth, a cute name for a Mister Handy. Dee-Dee bought him in Concord to help with some housework spur of the moment. He was more helpful then her living husband, which was a damn shame. 

Dee-Dee gave the Mister Handy a nod and took the coffee pot from him. She wasn’t too much of a coffee drinker but a cup of the hot bean juice sounded good right now. Teaspoons of cream and sugar turned the dark liquid to a light brown in her mug. She blew across the surface several times then took a slow sip. She smiled. Codsworth was right; it was brewed to perfection.

Nat sat silently on the couch with his back to her, newspaper in hand and a glass of bourbon in the other. It was too early in the morning to be drinking but Nate did what Nate wanted. Dee-Dee didn’t greet him and took a seat on a stool at the kitchen island with her cup of coffee. The male newscaster on the Radiation King television went on to talk about the Red Sox going to the World Series. She wasn’t a sports fan but Dee-Dee cheered from inside of her head for the team’s victory. Their curse couldn’t last forever.

Shaun’s crying tore Dee-Dee from the television screen. She sat her mug on the counter and began to rise from her seat.

“Let me tend to young Shaun, mum.” Codsworth insisted as he glided towards to the hallway. “He must have just made a stinky. Leave it to me!”

Dee-Dee smiled and seated herself back on her seat. Getting Codsworth was a good choice she made. He was good with the small baby and it seemed that Shaun was amused with the robot’s shiny body and funny voice. 

Three knocks in quick succession on the front door and Dee-Dee took her attention off the thought of the Mister Handy. She noticed a large blue van parked outside her home from the wide living room window. White text on the side of the van read Vault-Tec in bold lettering. It was her first time seeing that kind of corporation vehicle before.

“Go get the door, Dee-Dee.” Nate ordered in a monotonous voice, eyes still glued on his newspaper.

Dee-Dee frowned. The couch he was sitting on was a few feet from the door. He was the closest one out of the pair. But Dee-Dee did not object in any way, got up, and made her way to the door. 

A clockwise twist of the knob and the door opened. Standing on the welcome mat leading into the threshold was a man with a clipboard in his hands. He was a small man wearing an award winning smile on his face, a yellow trench coat on his body, and a matching fedora on his head full of red hair. “Good morning!” the man greeted in an upbeat voice. “Vault-Tec calling!” It sounded rehearsed but not forced. Like he said that specific line to many people before coming to her. The man oozed charisma. 

Dee-Dee gestured a nod to the Vault-Tec representative, who raised a reddish brow in confusion.

“She doesn’t talk,” Nate called out from over his shoulder. “You’re better off having a conversation with a monkey. Make sure you use small words so you don’t confuse her.”

His comment caused Dee-Dee to scowl hard. Her being selectively mute didn’t equate to her lacking intelligence. She let his insult roll off her back like she had before. 

“Well then,” the man said as he jotted down something on his clipboard with a pen. He continued with his usual chipperness, “You can’t begin to know how happy I am to finally speak to you. I’ve been trying for the past few days. It’s a matter of utmost urgency, I assure you.” 

That was strange. Dee-Dee would have remembered a man like him trying to contact her. Or maybe it was by the phone? Then why hadn’t Nate or Codsworth say anything about it? 

“Now, I know you’re a busy woman, so I won’t take up much of your time. Time being a, um,” He shifted his weight on his feet and rubbed the back of his neck with one of his hands. “A precious commodity…” 

Dee-Dee caught on to the man’s nervousness when he spoke about time. Again, strange. 

The Vault-Tec representative regained her composure in an instant. “I’m here today to tell you that because of your service to our country, you and your family have been pre-selected for entrance to the local Vault. Vault 111. You’re already cleared for entrance, in the unforeseen event of,” He cleared his throat then went on. “…total atomic annihilation.” 

She had seen firsthand how bad the war was. It was a matter of time before the United States and China would exchange nuclear fire. Being protected and safe underground while the two babies slapped each other silly sounded like a good idea. And she was getting in for no cost because she was in the army? Probably the first good thing she got out from being a soldier. Smiling, Dee-Dee mouthed the word _yes_ quickly and flicked her closed wrist at him. She didn’t want him to think she rejected his offer. 

“Great! Won’t take but a minute!” He passed her the pen and clipboard. “We just need to verify some information. That’s all!”

She read over the papers several times. Everything appeared to be correct so she added her signature on the dotted line at the last page then it handed back to the man. 

“Wonderful!” He said and wrote additional information on the forms. “That’s…everything. Just gonna walk this over to the Vault! Congratulations on being prepared for the future!” His eager voice trailed off as Dee-Dee walked away and closed the door behind her.

“Miss Dee-Dee,” Codsworth floated in from the end of the hallway. “No matter what I do, young Shaun can’t seem to settle down. Perhaps he needs that motherly abandonment, I mean affection, you possess.” 

The smell of lavender waft through the air as Dee-Dee entered Shaun’s room. Red rockets on baby blue backdrop decorated the bottom half of the room’s walls. She remembered Nate actually worked to make sure the room was perfect for Shaun’s arrival. At least he cares about his son. Nate was nowhere near being a deadbeat father.

Shaun seemed to calm down when she came closer to the blue wooden crib. A little brown bundle wrapped up in a swaddle and with a little blue hat covering his soft head; that’s what Shaun looked like to her. Dee-Dee winded the rocket mobile attached to the head of the crib and let the device make its rotations. A small lullaby played as it spun; it was good that she fixed it. She didn’t want to buy another one. The baby’s eyes lit up, reaching out with his tiny hands and kicking his feet. A series of coos and babbling from Shaun sounded like lyrics to the music and Dee-Dee sighed. She loved her son so much. Many times she wondered what he would grew up to be in the future. 

The door to Shaun’s room closed behind her and Dee-Dee turned her body around. To her surprised, it was Nate. He stood in the farthest corner of the room, holding a large envelope in his hands. 

“I need to talk to you,” the man said, tapping the envelope against the palm of his hand. “About the future, since we’ll be safe in a vault when the world goes to shit. Here,” Nate held out the envelope in her direction. “This is for you.” 

Dee-Dee closed the distance between them and took the envelope out his hand. She knew he was waiting for her to look at its contents so she wasted no time to open it. Undoing the brass prong and lifting the flap, Dee-Dee pulled out the thin stack of papers just enough to see its header. Her heart sunk to her stomach and her stomach fell to her feet when her eyes read the black text. They weren’t just any regular papers. They were divorce papers. 

Dee-Dee looked up at her husband. _A divorce?_ She mouthed, unable to sign correctly with the papers growing heavier in her hands with each passing second. 

He looked back at her with a cold glint in his blue eyes. He folded his arms across his small chest. “Smart girl, aren’t you?” said Nate. “Good to know that small brain of yours floating in that skull still works.” 

Her hands trembled and her right hand released the paper. _Why?_ She brought it close to her head and closed her fingers quick twice, leaving her pinky out each time.

“Because I got what I want now,” Nate answered smugly. “A son, a place in a Vault-Tec vault. A lawyer like me couldn’t possibly get in one on my own and I’m not dying over some stupid oil. I’m taking sole custody of Shaun also. Shaun and I will enjoy a peaceful life in a high tech vault. Without you. I always loved the benefits the army gave you. I could never join the army myself. Too messy for a guy like me.” 

Dee-Dee felt the sting of tears at the corners of her eyes, threatening to spill over. He never loved her. This was all a trap so he could reap in the spoils of being married to a soldier. She was starting to feel lightheaded. 

“I know a few folks at Vault-Tec who can do a bit of…tinkering of forms,” admitted Nate. “They can take your name right off them. A divorce wouldn’t mean a thing if I still saw and lived with you.” 

How could he do this? How could he do this to her? To their family? She had done nothing but loved and cared for him. And this is what she got for trying to be a good wife? A divorce and loneliness? And what would she do if the news got out to the whole neighborhood? Dee-Dee gripped the papers tight, causing them to crease under her fingers. He wouldn’t get away with this. Over her dead body. 

“Sir? Mum?” Codsworth called from the living room. “I think you should come and see this!” 

The unfamiliar panic in the robot’s voice had Dee-Dee, even Nate, running out of Shaun’s room.

“…Followed by yes, followed by flashes.” The once cheery newscaster said in a melancholy tone with his head down and a paper his hand. “Blinding flashes. Sounds of explosion. We’re, uh, trying to get conformation but we seemed to have lost contact with our other stations. Confirmed reports, I repeat, confirmed reports of nuclear detonation in New York and in Pennsylvania. My God…” The newscaster sunk his face into his hand then the image change to a ‘Please Stand By’ message.

Immediately, the air raid sirens sounded off and their wailings echoed throughout the small home. The divorce papers fell out of Dee-Dee’s hands. They couldn’t shock her as much as the end of the world could. What she needed was to get to the vault, and fast. Nate dashed pass her, ramming his shoulder into hers and almost knocking her over. He came back with Shaun cradled in his arms and ran out of the front door, leaving Dee-Dee behind in the dust. He didn’t even say a word to her before he left. Whatever, she had to get going.

_Codsworth_ , Dee-Dee mouthed the Mister Handy’s name. _Take care_. She tapped her wrists together while she held out both of her index and ring fingers.

“Take care of yourself also, mum…” he said, concern heavy in his voice. “Oh dear…”

She wrapped her arms around his body and embraced the robot in a tight hug. She felt him pat her back using his arm with the blowtorch attached to it. Whatever happened, Dee-Dee hoped that Codsworth would make it through in one piece. Maybe she would see him again after everything settled down. 

When Dee-Dee left her house, the sense of tension hung in the air like a thick fog. She saw her neighbors running down the road in a panic, abandoning their home for shelter from the incoming bombs. Several armored vehicle blocked the one way in and out of the suburb. Vertibirds flew overhead, circling over the entirety of Sanctuary Hills. Her brisk walk turned into a full fledge jog as she followed the rest of her neighbors heading towards the wooded area behind Sanctuary. There were uniformed soldiers leading people over a small wooden bridge to a checkpoint gate. It was guarded by two soldiers in Power Armor who welded miniguns. A man in military fatigues holding a Vault-Tec clipboard blocked the entrance from the crowd that had formed. At the front of the crowd, Dee-Dee saw the familiar yellow trench coat of the Vault-Tec rep. 

“That’s absurd!” the man shouted at the top of his lungs. “I AM Vault-Tec!”

“You’re not on the list!” The soldier shouted back. “You don’t get in!”

“I’m going in. You can’t stop me.”

The Power Armor wearing soldiers started up their miniguns. Their guns’ barrels whirred to life and they aimed at the irritated Vault-Tec rep. The smaller man jumped back with his hands raised. A woman in the crowd screamed when that happened. 

“I’m reporting this!” The rep yelled as he ran pass Dee-Dee, back in the direction of Sanctuary Hills. 

Dee-Dee, looking over her neighbors’, saw Nate at the front of the crowd. She pushed her way through to get to her husband. Like hell he was getting in to that vault without her. He wasn’t going to get what he wanted as long as she was still married to him. 

Nate hadn’t noticed her approaching him from behind while he stood in front of the soldier now. “Let me in!” Nate demanded. “My son and I are on the list!” 

The soldier glanced down at his clipboard then back at Nate. “Infant, adult male,” he looked over Nate’s shoulder to lock eyes with Dee-Dee. She pointed at Nate then at herself to gesture that she was with him. He continued, “Adult female.” He stepped out of the way “You’re cleared for entry.”

Alerted to her presence, Nate whipped his body around to face her. His eyes held pure malice in them. Complete hatred that burrowed deep into her skull. She had never seem him this angry before. Nate turned back around and jogged up the incline of the hill. Dee-Dee jogged after him; she wondered what would happen to the others who couldn’t get into the vault. Hopefully, they would get to somewhere safe. 

“All vault inhabitants this way!” Another soldier ordered as they reached the top of the hill. A single Vertibird landed in a opening and a few soldiers climbed aboard the craft. “Please stand in the middle of the platform.” The same soldier commanded, herding people onto a blue and yellow gear shaped metal platform in the ground. Dee-Dee boarded the platform with a few other families. She saw the Whifields, the Smiths, and the Robertsons among the group waiting. They most likely had to pay a big sum of money to gain a spot in a reinforced vault deep underground.

The location on top of the hill overlooked the suburb down below and the autumn colored tree that surrounded the area. Dee-Dee would admired the beautiful sight any other if the world as she knew it wasn’t coming to an end. 

Dee-Dee reached over to her baby in her husband’s arms only for Nate to snatch him out of her range. 

“I was close to getting away from you,” said Nate through a tight jaw. “For all as I’m concerned while we’re in the vault, I don’t know who you are. You are dead to me. Don’t even try to talk to me or Shaun.” 

Dee-Dee was taken aback at his comment and rested her arms at her sides. He really hated her. She wasn’t sure what to feel. Why was he so stupid to fall for him those years ago? She was really idiot for believing she could live a normal and happy life. There was nothing ever normal about Dee-Dee Lancaster. 

A large explosion fired off in distance, causing a gigantic mushroom cloud to form. The sky turned orange-red, like it was set ablaze by a match. Everyone cowered in fear, frightened screams and panicked yelling rang out. Dee-Dee couldn’t take her eyes off the mushroom cloud, even with the rush of air and debris closing in on their location.

“Send it down!” a soldier screamed out an order. “Send it down now!” 

She stumbled slightly when the stationary platform started its descend downward into the ground. Hot air and debris of all kinds of things hit the opening before a door sealed itself over her head. Minutes chugged forward at a snail’s pace the lower the platform went through the darkness. They tiny chatter from the people around her, their sobs and mumbles, gave Dee-Dee something to focus on. They spoke about parents and belongings they left behind on the surface above. They went on to talk about how they should have gone back for them. It reminded Dee-Dee of her own parents whom she broke ties with for several years now. She hadn’t spoken to them since she moved out of her childhood home. Dee-Dee wondered if they escaped the nuclear fire and flee to the safety of a bunker. Probably not. The blast would char their bodies in an instance. Why couldn’t she feel anything? Her entire body felt numb from head to toe. Everything happened so fast, too fast for her to react correctly. Well, she had all the time in the world to let it register in her mind now.

The darkness was chased away as white fluorescent lighting faded in the closer the platform reached its destination. Dee-Dee squinted her eyes when the platform broke out of the dirt chamber and more light flooded in. The platform came to a halt at the bottom and a heavy metal gate folded up, opening to a larger room. The room was made out of concrete with a set of metal stairs and a walkway leading to a gear shaped opening.  Water or a similar type of liquid dripped down from the shadowed ceiling. The wetness caused the air to feel cold, cold enough to bring a chill down Dee-Dee’s spine.

“Step off the elevator in an orderly fashion, folks.” A short man in a skin tight blue and yellow jumpsuit spoke in a strangely friendly voice. Too friendly from someone who knew the end of the world happened right above his head. “Everything will be fine. Just follow the security up the stairs and we’ll get you all situated in your new home.”

Two security guards wearing the same skin tight jumpsuits with tan ballistic vests and helmets ushered the group up the stairs and into the entrance of the vault. There were more people inside; some in those jumpsuits and others in neatly pressed lab coats.

A woman handed Dee-Dee a clean vault suit still in its plastic casing. The large yellow sown on the back, 111, faced Dee-Dee. She changed into the suit; it felt like she was wrapped in saran wrap wearing it. At least the material was much more breathable than her military fatigues.

“Just follow the doctor,” the woman told her. “He’ll show you the way.”

Dee-Dee had no choice but to follow the man in the lab coat nearby. He beckoned her towards him and he led her deeper into the vault. She heard Nate talking to Shaun behind her, comforting the child. It would have been her calming her son if let her anywhere near her own baby. She longed to touch her baby boy, to held him close and smell his sweet scent. Why was Nate doing this her?

“Oh you’re going to love it here,” the doctor said. “This is one of our advanced facilities. Not that the others arent’ great, mind you.”

Dee-Dee wasn’t listening to the man speak really. She was more focused on the claustrophobia wall that threatened to close in on her or her neighbors who were too grief stricken to go any further. It was a sad sight to see. All these people displaced and still trying to grasp on to the slightest shred of normality that was left. Their lives were going to be this vault from now on.

“We just need to go over a few medical procedures before we head deeper into the vault,” Dee-Dee managed to catch the last sentence the doctor said. He walked her and Nate over into another room, different from the rest. There were these complicated looking pods each side, adjacent from one another. The doctor stopped the couple in front of the last two pods. “These pods are meant to decontaminate and pressurize you for a suitable life in the vault.” He explained. “Just climb on it. It will only take a few minutes.”

She didn’t question his as she grabbed a red handle and hauled herself inside the pod. Not like she knew about all that science stuff. The door closed over her and the pod sealed itself. Dee-Dee could see Nate across the way from her pod’s window. He wasn’t looking at her but instead, he had his eyes on Shaun. Dee-Dee sighed and rested her head back in her seat. Might as well get comfortable as she waited. It was time for a whole new life.

“Resident secured,” a robotic female’s voice said. “Occupant vitals: normal. Procedure complete in five…four…”

As the voice counted down, Dee-Dee felt herself began to slip away. It was strange since she wasn’t tired when entering the pod. What was going on? Before she could get her answer, Dee-Dee’s breathing slowed to a complete stop and she faded under a chilly blanket of sleep.


	2. Sugar Bombs

It was cold. Colder than any winter Dee-Dee had even experienced in her life. It was just a decontamination process, she thought. Then why was it so bone chillingly cold? Dee-Dee shifted her body slowly in the seat she was propped up on. Her body felt stiff. She couldn’t quite move her arms and legs like she wanted to. Dee-Dee was beginning to feel like that Vault-Tec scientist lied to her and she wasn’t in a decontamination pod at all. A groan passed her lips as her eyes cracked open, eyelids heavy like the rest of her body. The haze in her eyesight started to fade the longer she was conscious. She could see out of the pod’s window, covered in ice flakes and slight fog. Nate was still across from her in his own pod holding Shaun, locked away and both unmoving through the window. It was dark outside of the pods, like someone just turned the light switches off and no one was home. Where were the doctors and the other people?

Suddenly, there were voices and movement Dee-Dee heard in the distance. Was it the doctor? Was she finally going to get out of her tiny prison? The person who came into view of her window wasn’t a person she recognized. They wore different clothing than the Vault-Tec doctors. Instead of a simple lab coat and slacks, they wore medical scrubs that covered the entirety of their body. She couldn’t see the person’s face since it was covered by some sort of mask.

“This is the one,” the person, a woman, said as she pointed at Nate’s pod. “Right here.”

Another person, a man, walked into Dee-Dee’s line of sight. She couldn’t tell much besides his gender as he kept to the shadows. “Open it,” the man ordered. His voice brought even more chills down her spine. This man was not a good person; Dee-Dee had a hunch.

The woman gave the man a nod and lifted a red lever on a panel next to the pod. The pod door creaked then opened, exposing the residents inside to the open. Nate began to cough and Shaun’s familiar wailing filled Dee-Dee’s ears. The worried mother sighed and slowly reached out to touch the window’s cold surface. Her baby was okay. She could relax with the knowledge her baby was still alive. But who were these people?

Nate panted, gasping for air. “Is it over?” he asked, holding tight to the small bundle in his arms. “Is it done?”

“It will be okay,” the man reassured. “Just hand over the baby.”

The woman approached Nate with her arms extended in front of her. She reached for Shaun but Nate pulled away. “I got him.” He said but the woman did not leave and she grabbed ahold of Shaun. A tug-of-war broke out between them, loud and out of control.

“Let the baby go,” the man said slowly and he brandished a gun, pointing it at Nate.

“I’m not giving you Shaun!” Nate shouted and a shot rang out through the enclosed space. Nate was thrown back into the pod and the baby fell in the woman’s awaiting arms. She bounced the child up and down to sooth Shaun’s crying. To see her husband take a bullet to the face and lay there unmoving again, Dee-Dee wasn’t sure how to feel. It happened so quickly. Nate was gone. The man who wanted to remover her completely from his life and live the rest of his life in a vault was dead. Was she happy? Or sad? No, Dee-Dee felt so numb like the cold that surrounded her. The pod door sealed back over Nate as if nothing ever happened.

“Get him out of here,” the strange man ordered. The woman nodded and she exited out of Dee-Dee’s line of sight.

The man approached Dee-Dee’s pod and peered through its window. He was a bald man, had a hardened face, and a scar over his left eye. “At least we still have a backup,” he commented then left Dee-Dee by her lonesome once more.

Backup? What did he mean by that? Why did they kidnap Shaun? He didn’t have to kill Nate, as much as she hated him and wanted him to pay. But…but… Before Dee-Dee could ask another question, the familiar cold blanket of sleep washed over her and she fell asleep again.

****************

Dee-Dee began to cough and hack. Her lungs begged for fresh air and she pounded her fists against her pod door. Her vision blurred and swayed, trying to correct itself on its own. An alarm blared loud and never-ending in her ears. From her persistent pounding, the door creaked then opened. Dee-Dee, shivering and coughing, shoved herself out of the pod with the little energy she had in reserve. She collapsed to the cold concrete floor. Her lungs stung as she gulped down fresh, musty air like a dehydrated man drinking water for the first time in forever. Waves of nausea washed over her, her vision doubled, and she struggled to stand on her own two feet. Now she believed that what she was put inside of was not a decontamination pod at all.

“Mass failure in Cryogenic Array,” a familiar female voice announced through speakers all around, “All vault residents please vacate immediately.” And the warning repeated along with the alarm.

Cryogenic Array? It sounded like something to do with freezing. Was she really put on ice by the friendly Vault-Tec people? And more importantly, was what she saw before even real? Was Nate dead and Shaun was actually kidnapped or was it a dream? Dee-Dee’s sight, now fixed, went to the large pod in front of her. There was only one way to find out if her suspicion was true. A red lever on a panel beside Nate’s pod was the key to opening it. Recalling the masked woman’s action, Dee-Dee pulled the lever down and lifted it in the up position. The pod door opened slowly, causing flecks of ice to rain down onto the floor.

A thin layer of ice coated the body of her late husband like a cold blanket. Nate was stiff and his skin bluer than the deep ocean itself. Dee-Dee pressed two fingers against the man’s wrist, waiting for any kind of output from Nate but received nothing. She removed her hand and took a step back. It wasn’t a dream at all. Nate was truly dead and Shaun was nowhere to be seen. What kind of people would steal a baby and murder a person to do so? Dee-Dee had so many questions to ask. But first, she had to find someone, anyone, in this place.

There was one other thing she had to do before she left Nate’s body. The golden ring on Nate’s ring finger on his left hand; a symbol of union and dedication that he destroyed. His finger snapped off when Dee-Dee attempted to remove the ring from his possession. She didn’t react to it but found some kind of irony to the situation. His finger breaking off was a sign that he couldn’t remarry again. Couldn’t if he wanted to since he was dead. Him being dead was almost a godsend and karma. He deserved what he got. Dee-Dee did not say goodbye to her late ex-husband. She had nothing to say to him. She watched in silence the pod door close over Nate’s corpse and lock him away. Good riddance, asshole.

With a few twists of the ring, it slipped off the frozen digit and Dee-Dee let the finger drop to the floor. She pulled the ring over her left thumb since it was too large to fit on her other fingers. Now Dee-Dee was a free woman; never did she think it would happen and end like this. Though love wasn’t what she was looking for or wanted at that moment. What she really wanted was to know what the hell was going on.

There wasn’t a single sign of life in the room she stood in. Her neighbors remained locked inside their pods like Nate was. Nate was the only known causality so perhaps there was a way to wake the others. A terminal near a sliding door, the only exit to the room, drew Dee-Dee in closer. She was no egg-head but she knew how to operate a terminal at least. The terminal’s rectangular keyboard folded downward and Dee-Dee tapped away at the keys. Thankfully, the terminal wasn’t locked. In green text, on a black background, were several pages titled _Cryogentic Array_ , _Life Support_ , and _Pod Occupant Status_. She opened up the page labeled _Cryogentic Array_.

It read: _Cryogentic Array Offline. Premature termination resulted in system failure. Isolated manual and remote overrides detected. Controls disabled._

Dee-Dee couldn’t make heads or tails with what she was reading but one thing that stood out to her was _System Failure_. That wasn’t good at all. The Life Support page was a repeat of the last page, saying it was offline as well. Dee-Dee’s hands trembled as she went and opened the last page.

Deceased; every last one of them. All the people she once called neighbors. Dead and gone. Dee-Dee stepped back from the terminal, shaking her head. Why? What was going on? Vault-Tec. There had to be some vault people somewhere in this place. They had to have the answers about all this cryogentic stuff. In a panic to find a person, Dee-Dee fled the room and entered the hallway. There were even more rooms with the same large pods inside, filling them to capacity. Hallways seemed to melt together and look the same the further Dee-Dee went. White, blue, and tan; they all mixed in her mind like paint on an artist’s palette. Dee-Dee was about to lose her damn mind until a figure came into view that caused her to stop in her tracks.

It wasn’t a person like she wanted it to be. Far from it, to be exact. It was a roach but this one was different from ones Dee-Dee had seen. While it was brown like a normal roach, this roach was large. Larger than any insect should be. And very hostile. As soon as it caught wind of Dee-Dee’s presence, it came charging at her. It tried to bite at her legs but Dee-Dee moved back for enough to avoid getting bitten. But the roach was relentless and continued to follow after her by leaping at her using its hidden wings. She had to get rid of this…thing. On a table close by was a security baton, extended and ready for use. Well, it was better than nothing, she supposed.

Dee-Dee grabbed the baton tight in her right hand. With all her might, she wacked the roach with her new weapon. The squish of bug guts and the crunch of exoskeleton rattled in her ears, which made Dee-Dee shudder. But the attacking roach was dead and its motionless body laid on the floor; that’s all that mattered at the moment.

The room that the big roach emerged from, Dee-Dee saw cafeteria tables. A mess hall, no doubt about it. Dee-Dee, unable to call out for anyone inside, entered the room herself. Something was…off about the mess hall. Something strange and eerie. Empty glass bottles, beer and Nuka-Cola, and coffee cups littered every available surface. Metal folding chairs were knocked over on their sides and thrown about in odd places. Dirty plates and cups filled the mess hall’s sink in a filthy pile.

No one was here either but Dee-Dee figured out what was so strange about the room. It was that a thick layer of brown grime covered every single inch of the mess hall. The grime was so thick that taking a finger to it didn’t cause it to lift from the surface. Only years of neglect would solidify dirt and dust like this. Actually, everything appeared a lot dirtier and older now that Dee-Dee thought about it. How long was she in that pod? Why would Vault-Tec do something like this?

The door next to the mess hall led to some sort of reactor room. Pylons mounted on top of the reactors arced with blue electricity. An unfortunate roach who wandered too close in between the two reactors and got a nice zap, killing it in an instant. Well Dee-Dee wasn’t getting anywhere near those. More roaches awaited her on the catwalk around the reactors though Dee-Dee dispatched them quickly with a series of stomps. The sound of their shells cracking under her boot still made her shudder, but felt good.

But around the corner, Dee-Dee saw something she didn’t expect to see. In front of a closed sliding door, lying face down on the floor, was a skeleton. No meat remained on its white bones. Only the tattered remnants of a blue jumpsuit dressed the deceased person. It was apparent that the roaches made meal of the poor soul. What happened here? There had to be someone, anyone, left alive but her hope was fading fast. The Overseer’s office had to have the answers she desired.

The hallway leading to the Overseer’s office had more roaches in her path. Dee-Dee punted each bug with a mighty kick of her leg, sending them slamming against the wall. She didn’t have time for them. All these roaches were now just an annoyance. When the sliding door opened with a pressurized hiss, the remaining bit of hope Dee-Dee accumulated disappeared in an instant.

Age and dirt consumed the office as it did in the mess hall. A skeleton wearing a ragged lab coat laid across of a knocked over chair behind the half-moon wooden desk. Papers and folders were scattered all over the place, both on the desk and floor alike. Upright lockers were left slightly ajar or open; their insides dug through and their contents missing. Dread hung in the air, just as it did when the bombs dropped that faithful day in October.

Was…this it? Dee-Dee stepped further into the room. Her footsteps were heavy as lead and it felt as if she was wading through thick syrup. This couldn’t be what was left. Here had to be something else or more. Another terminal on the desk beckoned the woman closer and Dee-Dee couldn’t resist with all her questions. Tacking of the hard plastic keys filled her ears and her eyes glued to the screen as it did with the last terminal. A sense of anxiety crawled up from her stomach to her throat as she opened the terminal’s files one by one. The Overseer knew that vault residents were going to be frozen and he was happy about the fact. She knew something was off about that short man and his evil facial hair. Then munity among the ranks to leave the vault and the Overseer locked himself with the rest of the supplies. Now everyone was either dead or gone and Dee-Dee was all by herself.

She needed to get out of this place. It was getting difficult to breathe and the room was shrinking around her. Freedom replaced the need for answers at that moment.

The terminal mentioned supplies in the office and Dee-Dee needed all the supplies she could get, other than a security baton.

Three stimpacks and 10mm pistol with a small box of spare ammunition laid on the desk in plain sight. Dee-Dee pocketed the stimpacks and ammo but took the pistol in her hands. It had been a while since she held a gun and she squeezed her fingers around the grip, aiming down the sights for a brief moment at the wall. She relaxed, holstered the gun, and brought back the security baton. Dee-Dee preferred using more hands-on weapons than a gun. The terminal had a file which opened the Overseer’s evacuation tunnel and she didn’t hesitate to open it.

What greeted her were even more roaches throughout the entirety of the tunnel. Groaning, Dee-Dee took out her gun and aimed at each of the bugs. They were beginning to become the bane of her existence. Thankfully, the roaches went down fast with bullets than with her baton. Dee-Dee ran down the tunnel after the bugs ever dead. The lack of human interaction was starting to get to her.

Several more skeletons occupied the entrance area, some wearing lab coats and others jumpsuits. The semi rusted gear-shaped door was shut closed and the lights were off except of a set of emergency lights shining down on a platform. Her boots clanged as she stepped upon it. The toe of her boot bumped into the skeleton of a scientist but something else on the floor caught Dee-Dee’s attention. Clasped around the bare bones of a hand and forearm was a strange brown device she only seen in ads on the television. Dee-Dee picked it up, letting the bones fall out and hit the floor with a hallow clatter, and gave it a look over. Pip-Boy, it was called; a personal computer right on a person’s wrist. Well, not like this guy wasn’t going to need it anymore.

She clipped the cuff on her left wrist and locked it in place. It fitted snuggly as if it was made for her. A press of its small orange power buttons and the Pip-Boy came to life with familiar green text. The dirt on the screen was wiped away with a few swipes of her thumb. Though it was a tad rusted and dusty, everything appeared to be in working order. A large white plug attached to the Pip-Boy by a thick black wire matched a hole on the console in front of her. Dee-Dee put two and two together rather quick, figuring out that the Pip-Boy was the key to opening the heavy vault door. The plug clicked when she pushed it into the console and, with a fist, she punched the orange lit-up button.

Alarms buzzed, drowning out all other noises. Rotating warning lights bathed the area in orange. Dee-Dee returned the plug to her Pip-Boy and watched the process take place. A cylinder machine attached to the low hanging ceiling moved forward along a track then locked in place against the door with a large hiss. Metal creaked and screeched as the machine pulled the door inwards and rolled it to the right on another track, opening the entrance. A metal walkway extended and dropped to the floor with rattle, creating a safe path out.

Dee-Dee couldn’t help but to feel a sense of déjà vu while she walked up the walkway and passed the vault’s threshold. Felt like the day she arrived underground. She still couldn’t believe all those vault people and doctors looked at them with straight faces as they froze every last one of them. It was insane to think something like that would ever happen. Especially to a person like Dee-Dee.

Dee-Dee inhaled and exhaled, then stepped down the wet stairs. The skeletons, the mass of roaches; all of that was now behind her. The elevator came down with a shower of sparks from its gears. The safety grate lifted, Dee-Dee walked to the middle of the platform, and the grate returned in its place. All that awaited the woman was the sweet feeling of freedom. _Enjoy your time on the surface_ , the woman’s robotic voice spoke as the elevator moved upwards, _And thank you for choosing Vault-Tec…_

Warm sunlight blinded Dee-Dee as the elevator reached the top of the shaft. She shielded her eyes with her right arm, waiting for them to adjust to the more natural lighting. The world around all around her slowly came to focus. The burning in her eyes faded and her arm returned to her side. A gasp fell out of her mouth as she walked to the edge of the cliff that the vault made its home on. All Dee-Dee could do was stare at the world that stretched out in every direction around her. Trees, houses, and cars were merely just blasted out shells of their formers selves the color brown overtook everything. No other colors thrived in this world than brown of the earth and the blue sky overhead.

This…this was the aftermath of the bombs and the war? A dead world left behind? Her legs trembled at the realization and Dee-Dee sat down in the uneven dirt. This was the new world she was now forced to live in. Not like she could just live by her lonesome in a vault full of dead people, skeletons, and giant roaches. She closed her eyes and rested her forehead on her knees; thoughts swam through her head. Ravens cawed in the distance and Dee-Dee lifted her head up to the dilapidated suburb down below. It was about time to go back home. Or whatever what was left of her home.


	3. Cram

Saying Sanctuary Hills was a shell of its beautiful former self wasn’t enough to describe what Dee-Dee saw as she walked through the quiet streets.

Overgrown weeds, both dead and alive, flourished in between the cracks of the sidewalks and asphalt. The once lovely maple trees that the suburb was known for were now leafless, dead mass of burnt wood. Even the massive maple tree in the center of the cul-de-sac wasn’t spared from nuclear fire. Their branches rattled in the wind like long, bony fingers clawing at the sky above. Materials of all sorts littered the ground. From toilets launched from their houses to piles of tire, to entire pieces of houses and rusted out cares; Sanctuary Hills was a complete and utter mess. It was difficult to take in that this place use to be her neighborhood.

The sound of humming cutting through the aching quietness grabbed all of Dee-Dee’s undivided attention. Though the houses no longer could be told apart, the rusted mailbox still had names written in faded white paint on them. She searched for the Lancaster mailbox. She never took her late husband’s last name and bought the house in her name. In front of her blasted old house, trimming away at the dead or dying scrubs, was her Mister Handy robot Codsworth. His metal body was dented and a little rusted compared to the other metal things she seen. But the robot appeared to be in working order as the day she bought him home and activated him.

One of the Mister Handy’s sensors noticed her approaching and he faced his entire body towards her. “As I live and breathe,” he gasped. Hearing his voice, though artificial, felt like everything was back to normal. A sense of calm and relief washed over her that moment. Dee-Dee didn’t let Codsworth finish his thought before she was all over him. She wrapped her arms around the robot’s round body and hugged him tight. To have some kind of normality in the world she was thrown into, Dee-Dee needed to make sure it was real. To keep her grounded to the reality that was before her eyes.

When Dee-Dee finally released him, Codsworth managed to finish what he was saying. “It’s-it’s really you, it’s it?” he choked out. It sounded as if he was on the verge of tears.

Holding back her own tears, Dee-Dee nodded. She was happy to see a familiar face but there was another question on her mind. ‘ _What happened?_ ’ she mouthed. With one of her fingers, she made a slashing motion across her open palm then pointed both her index fingers at the robot with her eyebrows furrowed.

“What happened?” Codsworth repeated. “Well, other than our roses still being the envy of the cul-de-sac, it’s had been quiet dull without you, sir, and young Shaun. Where are your better halves anyway?”

Better halves? Dee-Dee could laugh at the word describing her late husband. Correction, _ex_ -husband. Not like she had time to tell Codsworth the heavy news that Nate dumped on that unfateful day. She redirected her gaze to the dirt at her boots. She didn’t have the heart to tell him what happened to Shaun either. Where would she even start if she could?

“That saddened look on your face and sunken cheeks can only mean one thing,” said Codsworth. “Malnutrition! Missing two hundred years’ worth of proper meals can do that to the human body. But I must applaud mum’s endurance; you still look in your prime! Shall I fetch you something to eat?”

Wait, two hundred years? Had two hundred years really passed? The Pip-Boy, it had the date hardwired into its data and programming. Dee-Dee raised her arm and quickly fumbled with the personal computer’s dials. It was hard to believe that two hundred years had passed her just like that. She would have known. Was she in that vault for that long? But there it was, plain as day in green text on the screen: _May 13, 2287_. Two hundred and ten years; if the Pip-Boy wasn’t attached to her arm now, Dee-Dee would have dropped it. She couldn’t quite wrap it around her head. Frozen for all that time, and Vault-Tec was just going to leave her in there? But a thought came to Dee-Dee again: if everyone in the vault was either dead or gone, then who freed her from her cyro pod?

“Mum? Are you still there?” Codsworth’s voice burrowed its ways to her thoughts and brought her back to reality. Dee-Dee ran a hand through her hair, focusing on the robot again. “Shall we search the neighborhood together for the sir and young Shaun?” he asked. “I’m certain they will turn up.”

She knew the true answer to Codsworth’s question yet she did not want to sadden the robot. Like she needed to spread her sadness to others in this world. If it made Codsworth happy to look for her dead ex-husband and missing baby, then she would humor him and tag along. With a slow and small nod of her head, Dee-Dee agreed. Not like she had any plans to do at that moment in time.

Codsworth led the way and Dee-Dee followed close behind into Sanctuary Hills’ empty street. Seeing the burnt yet familiar hallowed out husks of her long dead neighbors’ homes felt like she was floating through a dream. One she was waiting to wake up from already. But it never came and Dee-Dee continued to walk, continued to exist.

The robot floated pass the rusted, open door to the Smiths’ old place of residence. Their Halloween decorations still clung on the house’s walls when Dee-Dee passed the threshold. Tattered and sun-bleached but still hanging where it was after nuclear war and two hundred years. It made her wonder if holidays like Halloween and Christmas were still a thing.

Dead leaves invaded the home like a pest, collecting in the corners and against the walls. Every window in the house was blasted out, littering old, warped glass underneath them. Furniture, broken and decrepit, filled the living room. Dee-Dee recalled how Misses Smith loved her home to be clean and cleanliness in general. The poor woman would be rolling in her grave if she saw the horrid state her house was in. Everything appeared normal as it could be at this state here. Yet, something felt off but Dee-Dee couldn’t put her finger on it.

Codsworth’s saw arm buzzed to life when three bugs came out of hiding and Dee-Dee flinched at the sight of them. They were bloatflies, much larger than the regular ones due to mutation, which now were roughly the size of her head. Their small, transparent pair of wings held their dark grey bulbous bodies in the air the same way a bumblebee did.

“Have at you!” Codsworth shouted, swinging his saw at two of the bloatflies who focused their attention on him.

The remaining bloatfly fluttered in mid-air, flying side to side, then it shot something out from the end of its abdomen. Dee-Dee moved out of the object’s line of trajectory by ducking. It hit the wall behind her with a solid thud. Whatever the bloatfly shot at her was something along the lines the lines of a maggot and a worm. Its grey body thrashed as it stayed attached to the wall paneling by its mouth. Dee-Dee shuddered at the sight. God, she hated the new world’s mutated bugs.

“Not on my watch!” Codsworth exclaimed as he slashed with his saw. The bloatfly fell to the floor in several disgusting pieces, oozing dark yellow liquid from them. “Are you alright, mum?” The Mister Handy asked and held out his clawed hand to the woman.

Dee-Dee took the robot’s hand and got back to her feet.

“This dirty pests have gotten bigger over the years. Nothing a fine product General Atomics can’t handle!” He said. “Now my sensors are detecting something in another home. That has to be the sir and young Shaun. Come, come! Let’s meet them with haste!” At least he still had enthusiasm after two centuries, Dee-Dee would give him that. More than she had, that was for certain.

The next house Codsworth floated over towards was the home that once belonged to the Whitfields. Their single seated car remained in front of their house after all these years. Its red coat of paint peeled away with heavy amounts of rust. It begged of someone to drive it or send it straight to the scrapyard and put it out of its pathetic misery.

No person greeted them at the door. Only more bloatflies buzzed around in the living room. Now, Dee-Dee was ready to do some extermination. She brandished her security baton and ran inside head first. Before a bloatfly could shoot a larvae at her, Dee-Dee struck first with an uppercut. The bug burst on contact, splashing her with its internal liquids and falling to the floor. Dee-Dee grimaced, wiping the sticky guts off her hands and onto her thigh.

Codsworth made quick work of the remaining bloatflies, dispatching them with several swipes of his buzz saw. When things began to settle down, Dee-Dee collapsed her baton and Codsworth approached her once more.

His eye sensors drooped. “The sir and young Shaun…” his voice strained, on the verge of breaking down. “They aren’t here…they aren’t anywhere, are they? They really are gone.”

Dee-Dee struggled to think and sign the right words to reassure her robot friend. She knew he tried his best to appease her and make her happy. It wasn’t Codsworth fault, it was the man who quickly termination her failed marriage and kidnapped her baby’s fault. She needed to get some fresh air. Away from the festering bug parts.

Taking Codsworth’s claw, she escorted the Mister Handy out of the house and seated herself on the cracked sidewalk. The air smelt cleaner after the bombs dropped to her. It didn’t feel like it did as it was two hundred years ago. Not so heavy on her lungs like before. Her eyes looked down at her hand as her golden rings glimmered in the sunlight. Where would she even start on her search for Shaun? She knew no one and she had no concept of what was out there transformed by the folly of man. Would she even survive out there?

“Miss Dee-Dee, if I may make another suggestion,” Codsworth spoke up. “I know my first suggestion wasn’t up to standard but why not venture off to Concord? The residents are a rowdy bunch of folk. They only managed to shoot at me a few times in the past.”

Concord? Dee-Dee sat up in attention. There were people there after all? Maybe there was someone who might have seen that scar faced man and the lab scrub wearing woman pass through there. It was a small and uncertain start but it was better than sitting and twiddling her thumbs.

Codsworth perked up. “By your reaction, I can tell you would like to travel to Concord. Then I shall accompany you, mum! I will protect you and act as a translator when the time comes. I don’t believe the more recent residents of Concord have been educated in the American Sign Language.” He then said with added vigor, “Now, let us make way. While there still is daylight available!” A faint whoosh of his jet and Codsworth floated off.

Dee-Dee hurried after her Mister Handy and took her place by his side. Having the robot with her lifted her mood from what it was when she left the vault. It was nice to have someone in her company.

From what she recalled, the small town of Concord wasn’t too much of a distance from Sanctuary Hills. If the nukes didn’t change the geography of the land, that is. It was just down the road, right pass the nearby Red Rocket Filling Station. A quick walk and an even quicker drive if all the cars around functioned like before. Or if the roads weren’t so uneven and cracked.

A wooden bridge arched over a wide, slow flowing river and connected Sanctuary Hills with the main road. Part of the bridge was broken in the middle and fallen into the river, along with a Rocket Sixty-Nine halfway in the water. The wood creaked under her weight as Dee-Dee maneuvered herself around the collapsed section. She considered fixing up the bridge so it would be safer to cross. Maybe drilling some heavy scrap wood and make a useable walkway, she thought.

As the bridge ended and the road began, the two came across a particular scene. Laying on the asphalt were the unmoving bodies of what Dee-Dee believed was a dog and a grown man.

“What a grizzly sight,” Codsworth commented.

The dog was of a fleshy pink color. Not a bit of fur was left on its body. She couldn’t even tell what breed the dog is or had been. The effects of radiation had taken its toll on the poor dog. Probably was a family pet in its past. It appeared that the dog and the man were in a heated battle before both parties perished. An old tire iron was stuck deep in the dog’s side, obvious that it belonged to the man. The man’s throat had teeth marks all over and dry blood caked on the skin. Perhaps the military training and battles made her numb to the sight of death. The United States Army wanted their soldiers to shoot guns with no feelings and Dee-Dee was one of them. She did feel some pity for the poor souls.

Dee-Dee grabbed the tire and pulled it out the corpse, which made a weird squish sound. It came out easier than she thought it would as she stumbled back a little. The tire iron was sturdier then her dinky security baton in her possession. She made the equipment change almost immediately. Who knew what other monstrosities wandered in the new world. Dee-Dee gripped the metal in her hands and motioned for Codsworth to continue following her down the road.

The woman found herself in awe at her surroundings. Downed power lines and nonfunctioning transformers claimed by overgrowth, guard railings completely rusted and bent out of shape, old cars abandoned on broken roads. Everything was quieter than it had been before the bombs fell. No more rushing around or the hustle and bustle of a lifestyle long forgotten. Just the wind in the trees and birds chirping in the distance.

Another old world relic rose the further Dee-Dee and Codsworth traveled down the road: the Red Rocket Refueling Station. This particular Red Rocket was the only place to refueling without driving all the way out to Lexington. The sign showing the prices for fuel reminded her of the Resource Wars the entire world was thrown into. Though the numbers had fallen off, she could make out unleaded costing over nine hundred dollars and diesel costing even more. She herself rarely drove the car, only driving to buy food from the Super Duper Mart and to work. Nate was the one who used the most miles on their shared vehicle.

Dee-Dee recalled one time finding a bra, a small pink lacey one, in the front seat of the car that didn’t belong to her. When she found it, she didn’t confront him about it. She didn’t want to rip their little family apart over stupid, trivial things. People make mistakes. She couldn’t possibly fathom that her husband cheating on her would lead to all of this? All the confusion, questioning, and loneliness…

“Miss Dee-Dee,” she heard Codsworth call out to her. The Mister Handy floated closer to the abandoned refueling station. “I believe I have found something!”

Dee-Dee came near. Codsworth’s finding wasn’t something the woman was expecting. It happened to be a dog of all things. Nothing like the mongrel’s corpse by the broken bridge, this dog looked the complete opposite of it. The dog was a full breed German Shepard, branding a shiny coat of black and light brown fur on his body. He padded up to Dee-Dee. His big brown eyes looked up at her and his long tongue rolled out the side of his mouth happily.

“Well, you don’t see a full breed pup like that nowadays,” Codsworth commented.

Dee-Dee had to agree. She thought all the dogs were now reduced to pink fleshy beasts. It made her feel better that normal dogs managed to survive all these years. Bending at her knees, Dee-Dee held out her hand to the hound with a small smile on her face. The dog sniffed her hand, his wet nose brushed against her palm, and let the woman rest her on his head.

 _'What a nice dog'_ , she thought.

He let her run her hand over the entirety of his body with no objections, only wagging his tail. He felt well fed and strong muscles twitched underneath the thick fur. Whoever owned the dog kept him full and healthy throughout his whole life. Perhaps his owner told him to stay at the station and was coming back? Dee-Dee loved animals but she was no dognapper or a thief in general. Petting the cute dog had to be fine and the dog seemed to be enjoying her attention.

“Is it me or are my sensors detecting movement again?” Codsworth said as he rotated his body several times and his three eyes moved about.

Dee-Dee soon heard rumbling and felt the ground quake beneath her boots. The dog’s ears folded back on his head and he bared his sharp teeth. His growling made Dee-Dee retract her hand from the dog’s head.

Jutting out from holes in the ground and dirt mounds, giant naked mole rats appeared in great numbers like a large pack. They surrounded the group in an instant. One mole rat shot out from the ground between Dee-Dee and the dog suddenly. She fell back on her backside in both shock and fright. The large, yellow incisors belonging to the creature chomped at her, almost making contact with her arm. A swift kick of her leg to its face had the vicious mole rat reeling. It recovered quickly though and leapt at her once more.

The dog intercepted the creature and clamped his jaws around the mole rat’s neck. He thrashed his head about with growls, tearing through its flesh effortlessly and causing blood to spray. Another mole rat ran up to her, ready to bite, but Dee-Dee whacked it repeatedly with her tire iron until it moved no more.

Though their numbers were thinning, the mole rats were very angry, relentless. Their curved teeth met canine teeth, a Mister Handy saw, and the end of an old and dented tire iron. The thick sound of skull getting caved in by something as simple as a tire iron had the adrenaline rushing through Dee-Dee’s veins. One by one, the mole rats went down at the hands of the team of three. No mole rat was spared. The ground was littered with rat blood, body parts, and empty holes they left in their wake.

Dee-Dee wiped the sweat that formed on her forehead from the fight with her arm, staining her Vault jumpsuit. _'Mad and territorial mole rats'_ , she thought as she tapped an unmoving and headless rat with the toe of her boot. She considered creating some kind of catalogue of all the new creature she encountered in the near future. Meeting and seeing these new, mutated animals gave Dee-Dee a sense of childlike wonderment. Her morbid curiosity wanted her to find every single abominations out there, with the exception of the bugs. The bugs were the most disgusting things she had ever seen. It would possibly be the untimely death of her but she was working on borrowed time anyway.

With the fight at its end and things beginning to settle, the dog approached her as he did went he first met her. He cocked his head to the side, wagged his tail, and stared up at her with big brown eyes full of adoration.

“I do believe that the pup wants to tag ago with us!” Codsworth piped in. “How about it, mum? You know what they say about safety in numbers.”

Having such a sweet and useful puppy dog around would be helpful. Especially if more mole rats came popping out of the ground again like daisies. Dee-Dee rested her hand atop of the dog’s head. She nodded her head in agreement and the dog wagged his tail faster in excitement. She was starting to feel a little bit more confident with Codsworth and the new addition of the dog at her side. The chance of her survival appeared to have grown. Not by much, but it was better than nothing. Survival was the key in this world, it seemed. Getting to Concord in one piece was a much more of a tangible goal now. Just a little bit further.

The main road began to slope downwards several hundred feet into an old intersection right on the outskirts of Concord. Traffic lights that hadn’t been knocked off their lines swayed in the warm breeze. The group came closer to the intersection and there was movement next to a busted guard rail. Dee-Dee knelt down in some dry brush at the side of the road. She motioned her companions to follow her lead with a downward flick of her fingers and wrist. The dog bent his legs to get low and pinned his ears against his head. Codsworth managed to lower himself to the ground by lowering the propulsion of his jet and raising his arms a little.

A small smile came to Dee-Dee’s face. She was never the one to give orders, always following them. Having the two listening and understanding her gestures, it felt good. She was afraid that, without words, she wouldn’t be able to relay what was on her mind. Codsworth and the dog were an example that she didn’t need words.

Dee-Dee’s eyes narrowed as she tried to make out the strange figure she saw move. When her eyes adjusted to make out the shaped correctly, she was taken aback. It was the body of some type of large livestock with skin pink just like the mongrel and mole rats. Its unmoving body laid on the side but the sight of a dead animal wasn’t what shocked her. It was the creatures feasting upon it. They were like mosquitos, as large as a big dog and pink. Repeatedly, they stabbed their long tube-like mouths into the corpse. Not wanting to tangle with those things, Dee-Dee waited for them to finish and flutter away for her to feel safe to leave her hiding spot.

On closer inspection, the dead livestock was a cow of some kind but with two head attached to a singular neck. Its dry skin stretched tight over its skeleton as those bugs drained the poor creature of its blood. But she couldn’t mourn of the random beast for long. The familiar popping of gunfire close by brought her attention back to Concord.

The more she focused on the sounds of the shooting, the more she was pulled back into an unpleasant past. The day America annexed Canada; the thought alone made Dee-Dee’s heart race and her palms sweat. It was supposed to be an easy mission. The rifles they held were only meant for intimidation. No one said were going to use them on the unarmed and fleeing…

“Mum?” Codsworth’s voice grounded her to reality. Dee-Dee shook the memory from her mind then focused back on the Mister Handy. “Are you alright, mum? You seem to be lacking your usual pep. Is there something the matter?”

Dee-Dee shook her head. She didn’t want the robot to worry about her more than he already did. Even with her fear, she had to keep going forward to Concord. She longed for answers and interaction with another human. The company of the robot and dog was good but she needed to see a living person. A little hesitant, Dee-Dee continued her way into town. She snagged a baseball bat from one of the empty houses which replaced her tire iron. She would carry more melee weapons if she had some sort of backpack.

Concord was still a quaint little town even after the war. It was frozen in time right on that October day. Tattered banners waved in the wind over the street. ‘Celebrating America’s History for…Years!’ they read but strangely the number of years was torn away like some morbid metaphor. Red, white, and blue decorated quite a bit of the old town since the bomb dropped. Concord was opening the Museum of Freedom to the public the next day. She wondered if the museum was still in one piece.

Vacant trucks, cars, and sandbag barriers were left in the streets and people shot up at the museum with no prejudice. It was a group of five in total dressed in leather and rags, firing up at a single person on the museum’s balcony. She couldn’t make out the person the balcony but they appeared to be firing a red laser at the aggressors. If she didn’t intervene, the person will certainly lose the fight. No way she could stealth her way through this one. They were clustered too close together for her to land a hit without being noticed by the others. Looks like she was going into this head first.

Throwing caution to the wind and breathing heavily, Dee-Dee charged forward with her bat grasp tight in her hands. They never saw her coming since she did not vocalized her presence to them. The closest person to her, a man holding a shotgun, was the first to get attacked. Her bat connected with the man’s neck, causing a quick loud snap to sound off and the man to go flying to the ground. The nearby raider halted in his shooting up at the balcony to point his jerry rigged hand cannon at Dee-Dee.

The dog launched himself at the raider and sunk his large canines into the man’s arms without fear of getting shot himself. The raider hollered and began to beat the dog over the head with the butt of his gun. Being hit repeatedly did not deter the dog from dragging the man down to the street.

 _'Don’t touch the puppy!'_ Dee-Dee shouted in her head. She slammed her bat against the man’s spine. The first hit brought him down the cracked asphalt and with the second hit, the raider ceased all movement.

“If I could feel pain, that would have hurt!” Three raiders surrounded Codsworth, beating the robot with their guns and pool cues. The Mister Handy retaliated by slashing his buzzsaw out at one of his attackers. It sliced with ease through the abdomen of a raider, who screamed as his blood splattered on the road. Bugs and mole rats were one thing but fighting humans? Dee-Dee thought Mister Handy robots were docile. Was there actual combat programmed in him? No, she had no time to think about stuff like that.

She rushed over, her boots stomped against the ground under her weight, and she pushed the robot from the center of attention.

“Mum!” Codsworth exclaimed.

It was difficult for her to automatically respond to her nickname but she had to deal with more pressing issues. Her right leg shot out in front of her and the hard toe of her boot connected with the male raider’s groin. The reaction was immediate. He groaned in pain and fell over, curled into the fetal position. That was when Dee-Dee wailed on him mercilessly. _'Don’t touch my robot, you ass!'_ She yelled. One thing she forgot that there was another raider until it was too late to react.

“Gotcha!” the raider, female, shouted as she pinned Dee-Dee’s neck with her tire iron, pulling her backwards.

Dee-Dee dropped her bat as she wrestled against the raider, trying to push the tire iron from off her throat. She was gasping and grunting for air. She possessed quite a bit of power behind her fat and muscles but she just could not shake this raider. The smaller woman hung on, twisting and pulling more on her weapon.

“The raider cackled, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Can’t wait to count your caps when you’re dead, you bloated brahmin!”

A shot rang out through the air. A loud and bassy noise which vibrated off the buildings. It was like nothing Dee-Dee had heard before. The tire iron on her neck went slack then clattered against the asphalt. The raider fell away from her and hit the ground with a _thump_ , motionless. There was a hole in the back of her head, clean with white smoke smoldering from deep insider her skull. The smell of burnt hair and cooked meat wafted by Dee-Dee’s nose.

“Up here!” She heard a voice beckon her and she looked up at the Museum of Freedom. It was the guy on the balcony, waving a gloved hand at Dee-Dee erratically. “I’ve got a group of settlers inside! The raiders are almost through the door. Help us, please!” Before she could sign a reply, the man retreated inside the museum.

There wasn’t much time to consider what to do next. If there was more raiders inside threatening innocent people’s lives then Dee-Dee didn’t want to walk away from something she could have giving her aid. The more people she could save then maybe the memories will fade away…

Codsworth floated to her side, safe and unharmed. “Are you going inside, mum?” he asked.

Dee-Dee glanced up at the museum for a moment then back at the Mister Handy with a nod.

“Do be careful then,” said Codsworth. “I will stay out here just in case more ruffians show up!”


End file.
